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Eighteen
June
“You know I can’t do it without you.”
I rolled my eyes and kicked my feet up next to the mixing board in my bare bones home studio. “You can and you have until this point.”
“That is a lie. You helped me with my first EP. Don’t you recall working with me and Flynn? Hijinks in the woods in Tennessee. So many woods.” I imagined Ian shuddering.
Like me, my mate wasn’t the biggest fan of bonding with nature. Although I’d gotten much closer to nature than I’d ever anticipated that night with Ivy…
A night on constant replay in my head, much to my consternation. It was over a month now since I’d seen her. Even that long had been torture. Going beyond it would test me.
It already was.
Sure, we’d texted a few times. Some nights more than a few. I was usually flying across the damn country and living out of my luggage and her long hours at the diner and working on her truck seemed to leave us at cross purposes. But an emoji from her could brighten my whole day.
Once or twice, I’d weakened and nearly called her. Yet I knew I couldn’t open that box. It wouldn’t make the distance easier. Just the opposite. And I’d made her promise to call me if she found someone else, so maybe she figured I’d do the same.
I didn’t want to rock the boat. It was already damn close to capsizing.
With a sigh, I checked back into the conversation with Ian. “I do recall. I also remember you learning to enjoy those woods. You were up fishing every morning.”
“It was nice being out there on the
water. A good way to clear my head. Also, I drank a liquid breakfast, so there was that.”
“I imagine a liquid breakfast makes most things better.”
“Not really. Just dulls the edges so nothing is as vivid or as sharp. I’m not a happy drunk like you most of the time. You’re the table dancer, not me.”
I snorted and dropped my feet to the floor. Clearly, I was too restless to sit. “I have pictures that say otherwise.”
“Those might as well have been a lifetime ago.”
“Right, back when you were a single lad and footloose and fancy free.”
“Footloose? I was a bloody mess. Women tossed me their numbers and I couldn’t even consider taking them up on their offers. I’d gone to banana.”
“What?”
“You know. Soft serve. Couldn’t get it up for anyone but Zoe.”
I did know. All too well. And it royally brassed me off. Not that I wanted to get it up for anyone else. I couldn’t even look at other women. Every one I passed, I compared to Ivy and rejected. Too tall, too short, too thin, not ginger enough.
Just not Ivy.
“Must you rub in your love life at every turn?”
“Who’s rubbing? Sounds like you might need to though. You’re crankier than usual.”
“Hell yes, I’m cranky, because you think I can just pick up and run to New York whenever you get the yen to bother me. I have clients, you know, and work that doesn’t include you.”
“I get that, and I have songs with others that I didn’t intend to include you on either. But I wanted you to be part of this EP just as you were the last. If you’re too busy, that’s fine. I’ll make do.”
I stabbed my fingers into my eyes. They were gritty and hot from too many long nights spent fiddling with melodies and writing pages of lyrics that didn’t go anywhere. “Look, I’m in a mood.”
“What else is new?”
